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I felt jittery, and at loose end. I decided to call in at Grimshaw’s to talk things over with Theo, so I jumped onto the tube to head there. Finch had called me twice already, but I wasn’t in the mood to call him back. My focus was on Devil Claw. I wasn’t going to be able to help him with Zezi. Not until this was all over. It was proving difficult for me to even think about anything else.
Going to see Theo proved to be a mistake. All he wanted to talk about was the research that he had done on the Angel of Death, and this was the last thing I wanted to think about. I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to kill the Devil Claw, and I was hoping that would put an end to this whole killer urge thing. I wanted the haunting feelings that had been keeping me up at nights, the thirst to kill something, to die out. I wanted to move on with my life and be normal.
Theo was in no mood to let me bury my head in the sand. “There is no concrete information about the Angel of Death,” he said. “He or she is thought to be a legend. All of the information is hearsay. We know that the angelli are thought to be descendants of the Angels themselves, and are extremely distant relatives with powers that are far diluted.”
“Death by words,” I muttered. “Theo, you’re killing me here.”
He ignored me, continuing, “And we know that the baena — succubae and incubae — regard themselves as descendants of Lilith. Some schools of thought claimed that Lilith, a demon, was a dark angel. However all of the stories of an actual Angel of Death himself, or herself, vary throughout each of the major religions. There is no record of there being any descendants of that particular angel, so therefore we have to ask ourselves whether you think that you are actually the angel herself.”
Theo sounded excited. There was nothing that he liked more than reading the many old books that he owned. I sensed that he was only just getting started, and I wanted to head him off before he made me spend hours sitting there listening to him. So I asked a purposefully stupid question to annoy him.
“What about vampires?” I said lightly. “They’re dark beings, right? The undead. Creatures of death. Evil, and all that. Does the Angel of Death have anything to do with that?”
Theo waved my suggestion away with mild irritation. “We have nothing to suggest that the Angel of Death herself is evil,” he insisted. “The various accounts speak of an avenging angel, who while she may have dealt death, only did so in an avenging capacity to protect the people she had been sent to guard. Therefore there is no need to believe that the Angel of Death is evil in herself.”
It was weird that Theo was speaking of me as if I was this creature of mythology when I was sitting right there in front of him being a perfectly ordinary me.
“Really, Theo,” I said. “Let’s just forget I ever said anything about it. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe I made the whole thing up in my mind.”
Theo acted like I had not spoken. “Vampirism is a genetic disease mutation, often to humans in particular, which is transmitted through drinking a vampire’s blood when the victim is in a weakened state, usually drained of blood, to the extent that they are almost dead. This is so that the mutation can take effect on the weakened and dying body, and reanimate it. Werewolf-ism is also a genetic mutation, but this time on a living being, often a human. Goblins are the other major type of Otherworld beings that are found here on Earth, but they are actually a species unto themselves that are native to Otherworld. These three species do not claim to be descended from angels, so we can rule them out. Similarly the various other types of beings native to Otherworld claim to be creatures of magic but not necessarily descended from—”
“Theo!” I said sharply, interrupting him in mid-flow. “I really did not come here to speak to you about any of this. I wanted to talk to you about the Steffane Ronin case.”
“Then it’s even more important that we should discuss this,” insisted Theo. “It’s important in your psychological recovery after you slay the Devil Claw Killer, if that is indeed what you have decided to do. If you really were the Angel of Death, who was sent to slay enemies, then it’s no wonder you feel a compulsion to kill the Devil Claw Killer. In understanding this you’re going to be able to reconcile yourself to having to murder another being.” Theo’s voice finally quavered and lost its sense of conviction. He did not seem to have reconciled himself to this idea of me murdering another being. Perhaps that was why he is so intent on talking to me about it. It was him who was having trouble with this whole thing.
“You really don’t need to worry about me Theo,” I told him. “It turns out I have a secret weapon after all.” I told him about the sword.
This seemed to agitate him more rather than have my intended effect of calming him. “But this is incredible,” he said. “None of my reading spoke of a sword. I really have to look into this. You said it appeared at the moment the vampire Marielle tried to kill you? Which means that it appeared in your moment of greatest need? That means you should practice with a sword, so you will be ready for it and know how to use it when it next appears.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said to him. “And I promise that I’ll practice but I don’t have time right now.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he argued. “You have to make time. You have to prepare! We are speaking of an experienced and highly brutal serial killer. You can’t go into this situation empty-handed. It’s far too dangerous. Before, I thought this potential confrontation was a long way off, but if everything you said is true, then you may be facing your nemesis far sooner than either of us expected.”
“Chill out, Theo. I will prepare. In fact I plan on spending the rest of the day doing it. And anyway, even if Devil Claw did hurt me, all I have to do is survive long enough to crawl into a hideaway and pass out. It’s a good job I can magically heal while I’m unconscious. It will be fine. Trust me.”
“Not if he kills you. Not if you pass out from your injuries during the fight. You will be entirely at his mercy.” Theo frowned at me. “This is no time to make light of the matter, young lady!”
I giggled. “Did you just call me young lady? Hadn’t we just been discussing that I’m supposed to be the Angel of Death? That makes me a pretty old lady by my count!”
Talking about my sword appearing at my moment of greatest need has cheered me right up. The sword had slid into a vampire’s notoriously hard skin so effortlessly. Which meant that maybe it would slide into DCK like butter too. I didn’t really have to know how to fight with a sword. I just had to know how to stick the pointy end in. But there was some more stuff that I need to do before my confrontation with DCK. Because it was not going to be enough to only kill him.
I need some information from him. My mother Magda’s letter had said that she feared that DCK was hunting me because he wanted my navelstone. I had to know if that was true. How and what did he know about me? And who else knew? To find out, I was going to have to tie him up and torture him, horrific as that sounded. And if I was going to do that, I needed somewhere to do it in. Somewhere that couldn’t be linked back to me or to Theo, since it would be the crime scene that I killed him in.
I had seen it on one of the TV shows that I liked to watch. They called it a kill room. I needed my own kill room. And I knew where I was going to find one.
I planted my hands on the counter and hoisted myself up to plant a quick kiss on Theo’s cheek. “Thanks for worrying about me, Teddy bear. You really know how to make a girl feel cared for. But I am going to be just fine. You’ll see. I’ve gotta go now.”
With those words, I left the magic shop, and made my way around London to various hardware stores, purchasing a bunch of things with cash, like plastic wrap. A lot of it.
When I was done with my purchases, I made my way to the tube station and across London, weighed down by the heavy new backpack I had bought, filled with all the tools of a killer’s trade. I got out at Shoreditch station and trudged through the streets of East London, until I reached the abandoned office building that I had once walked through with the Remi during a case. We had been hunting for a missing teenage girl and a killer werewolf.
The building was completely locked off, but during our search I had discovered a shutter closing off a broken window that could be opened from the outside. It was one level up, a tricky climb, especially with my backpack. I let myself into the building and trudged up the interior stairs to the very to
p level. It was kind of dark in here, but I didn’t mind that.
I didn’t know how I was going to lead DCK here exactly, but I would think of it. For now I had to prepare. I selected one of the rooms on the upper level and set about laying down plastic sheeting all over the floor and sticking it to the walls. It was a time-consuming task, particularly since I had to be very careful to make sure that I didn’t get my fingerprints or any of my DNA anywhere. I had covered my hands with plastic gloves and my hair with a plastic shower cap. I had stifled several sneezes from all of the dust everywhere. Most annoying was having to snip each piece of sticky tape with scissors instead of using my teeth, which would have been far quicker. Prepping a kill room was far more laborious and annoying than I had thought it would be.
I had bought along various tools and knives as torture instruments, and after several minutes of debate with myself, I decided to lay them out on one side ready for use. I might need them on hand to subdue DCK once I got him into this room. Mostly I was hoping that my sword would appear, and I could use that instead. I covered the weapons up with a bunch of garbage bags when I was done. Hopefully DCK wouldn’t see them and decide to use them on me.
